About the site
Located in the First Republic development of what was then Křížkovského Street, the villa was commissioned by mechanical engineer and factory director Bruno Vogel. It is the earliest known work by Reichner and demonstrates his interest in a modern reinterpretation of tradition, as well as his approach to symmetry shaped by the restraint of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) and his use of romanticizing decorative and expressionist elements.
The two-storey masonry villa with a hipped roof stands on a landscaped plot bounded to the north and west by Gudrichova Street and screened from street traffic by a rubble-stone wall. The upper part of the wall is plastered and finished with a coping cornice, rhythmically divided by openings with barrel vaults and metal grilles. Reichner later used similar openings in the Opava Municipal Savings Bank building in the late 1930s and in the Representative House in Žilina in the early 1940s.
At the chamfered north-west corner of the masonry boundary wall, the central section features a rectangular main entrance to the villa and garden, surmounted by a projecting, arrow-shaped parapet over a wicket gate with an expressionist-style wrought-iron grille. The entrance leads to a single-flight staircase and the main door in a ground-floor risalit. The villa itself, set in the landscaped garden, combines the form of a traditional house with windows and a conventional roof with the clear-cut massing and forms derived from the principles of German Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). The basic compositional principle follows the traditional tripartite division: a simple plinth, the main body of the ground and first floors with relatively small double windows and simple horizontal parapet and crowning cornices, and a hipped roof (now sheet-metal clad) with cuboid dormers and a broad central chimney. All façades are arranged with an emphasis on symmetry, most clearly visible in the first-floor openings. The rectangular plan and massing are further articulated by a cuboid risalit with the main entrance on the west side, a north-facing risalit with a first-floor terrace, and, on the south side, a symmetrically placed cuboid annex sheltering the garden entrance and a ground-floor terrace. The interior is organized around a two-storey stair hall, with living and service rooms grouped into interlinked units.
Vogel, of Jewish origin, emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom ahead of the Nazi occupation, escaping the threat to their lives, and never returned. In 1962, the state converted the house for use by the Metrology Institute, which still occupies it today. Despite its adaptation as offices, parts of the original interior survive, including timber panelling and built-in furniture.
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